With 5:35 to play in the second quarter, game still close, the Clippers were shooting over 50 percent from the field. Mike Smith lauded the Clipper effort, before cautioning that they’ll need to keep it up because the Thunder “will have an 8-0 run here in the first half and you know they’ll have one in the second.” You don’t get to hear understatement uttered from Mike Smith very often, but that was definitely the case. It wasn’t long before the Thunder, despite the Clippers hanging around, bolted off from a 47-46 lead, out on a 15-0 run to finish the quarter 62-46. The Clippers didn’t score a single point during the last 3:33 of the half.

Just like Mike Smith said, the Thunder had another run in the second half, a 10-0 run at the beginning of the fourth quarter that put the game away. Both runs coincided with Blake Griffin on the bench, something that should surprise no one.

The Clippers have had a hard time this year developing a bench unified enough to maintain the status quo in games, if not extend leads or cut into deficits. With the team having large portions of time without their stars (Baron, Kaman and Gordon), the confidence of bigger minutes should reasonably develop a bench. The team was young, and in need of experience, so give them experience. Bledsoe has had his sparks in the year (especially when Baron went down), Aminu played well in November but has struggled since, Kaman was an All Star and when Eric Gordon comes back, Randy Foye should improve the bench. Such was not the case against the Thunder.

What’s unsettling, even in the small sample size of 28 minutes in two games, has been Kaman’s inability to snap out of his shooting funk early in the season. He’s shooting 5 for 13, good for 38 percent shooting. Breaking out of the shooting slump seems reasonable to expect, but Kaman looked pretty lost against the Thunder. He shot 3 for 9 with the same hesitancy of the beginning of the season. However, Kaman’s lack of play is the temporary scapegoat for two larger things: Gordon’s absence and a functional system. Gordon plays at a much higher rate than anyone other than Blake Griffin, EJ’s absence has been a huge loss for the team because he was such a huge cog in the team’s identity. He was the quiet and mysterious lead guitarist to Blake Griffin’s lead singer, one without the other and the band doesn’t work.

As for the functional system, the Clippers are so reliant on Blake and Gordon’s talents that any problem with those two and the Clippers falter greatly. It’s not Old Sloan’s Flex Offense, or Phil Jackson’s (and Tex Winter’s) Triangle, it’s not a San Antonio system, not even Boston. Each of those teams are built in a way that if one player goes down, other players can step up and play. Like the Clippers, the Lakers have had been similarly injury plagued, in recent years the Spurs have been in the same boat (trying to keep Manu and Tony Parker healthy), and the Celtics have to cobble decent performances in the games when their vets (Garnett, Allen and Pierce) can’t play. It’s not even a case of taking years to establish a system, as the Bulls have done it in Thibodeau’s first year (albeit in a defensive scheme) and they’ve had Boozer and Noah, key guys, miss huge portions of the season. Before you say that the Bulls have MVP candidate Derrick Rose, know that Blake is in that category.

When Eric Gordon returns, he will mask many of the deficiencies of the team, but the Clippers will still have some huge foundational questions that they need to address to become relevant.

Notes:

• As if the play of the bench didn’t implicitly show Blake Griffin’s worth, his play tonight showed it directly. He came close to his first triple double, scoring 28 points on 9 for 15 shooting, yanked 11 rebounds and dispersed 8 assists. Not bad at all. There was still some work that he needs to do, he was whistled for some fouls that he’ll learn to avoid. One was a spin move at the end of the third quarter when he was called for a charge, drawn by Nick Collison. He was pulled from the game to protect from fouling out, and the Thunder seized the momentum. Partly due to his aggressive play, but Blake can still learn footwork that will allow him to avoid those calls. Even still, Blake is the catalyst for the team. Even more impressive was that Blake did this after a hectic All Star Weekend and attending the funeral of his high school teammate.

• Al-Farouq Aminu. You know this, I know this, but Aminu has been playing terribly in the last months. His shooting has been cold and while there have been improvements in his turnovers, he’s still a TO machine. But what I liked about tonight was that Aminu didn’t try to get his shots from the perimeter, but returned to the paint to get his points. Nice place to start, he shot 5 for 6 (with a three in garbage time). The Clips could really use his improvement.

• Randy Foye’s D. Jordan Heimer, Krai and Alex are going to kill me for this, but I think that Foye has done pretty well on defense lately, tonight particularly. Foye switched defensive assignments with Baron from the start, marking the elusive Russell Westbrook. Westbrook didn’t look like his normal self, Foye holding Westbrook to 3 for 11 shooting. Like Foye’s offense, his spurts of defense are not consistent enough to be a starter, but he does play some defense when he has it going.

• Bledsoe had another solid game off the bench (13 points, 4 assists), if you can overlook the 5 turnovers. Mike Smith broke down a sequence of Eric Maynor crossing up Baron and Baron recovering more slowly than normal, remarking that he looks slower than he did a week ago, with that being the case, why not see if Bledsoe can’t play more minutes?

The Heat are shopping Mike Miller for a PG or C. I hope the Clippers at least make an offer of Randy Foye for him. This will give us a starting SF and will let Bledsoe play along side Baron in the starting lineup. Maybe call up Willie Warren as well. It also clears up the log jam at the guard spots.

JaySee

Troy Murphy should also be on the Clippers radar if the Nets waive him! He’s a PF, but rebounds, blocks shots, and shoots the 3. Maybe he can play out of position and be our starting 3. If anything we can put Cook to pasture and give more minutes to Diogu.

RimReaper

While I’m in full agreement about “putting Cook out to pasture” in favor of Ike, let’s not give up on Gallinari just yet. Neither should we trade off Foye either. If anything, we should trade off Willie Warren. He played 3 minutes last night without impact.

Let me go on record here an suggest that the Clippers should select Norris Cole from Cleveland State in the second round of this year’s NBA draft as an insurance point guard. He’s a Bob Cousy Award finalist with all kinds of talent and range, being the only person besides Blake Griffin in the past 15 years to score over 40 points and collect 20 rebounds (including 9 assists) in a game. His advantage over Bledsoe is that he has played college ball for four years as both a SG and PG and rarely turns it over. He is just starting to get the recognition he deserves. Check him out.

RimReaper

P.S I just checked out some mock drafts and Cole’s value is skyrocketing. He is now listed as going out as the 2nd pick in the 2nd round. The Clips should get in on this while he’s still relatively unknown. He’s a true floor general if I’ve ever seen one.

JaySee

Why would the Heat give us Miller for Warren? The salaries don’t even match. The Gallinari deal is dead if it even existed. Miller fills our need and we are backlogged at guard. Bledsoe can fill the starting SG spot until Gordon is back or they could put Miller in at SG starting spot and keep Gomes at SF until Gordon is back.

RimReaper

I never said anything about trading Warren for Miller. Just that if we trade anyone it should be Warren instead of Foye. I don’t know enough about Miller to comment on whether he would be a good fit for the Clippers.

Keith Closs

Could the Thunder announcers be more ho-hum over that alley-oop in that video above? And close to goal tending? Obviously they haven’t seen Baron’s FG% from deep as that was not even that close to the rim.
Without EJ playing, this team is so hard to watch besides Blake Griffin and what he might do next.

BG 2012

We’ve got a serious front office issue on our hands. Every GM that is trying to make their team a contender is out there right now in negotiations. I’m sure Neil Oshey is sitting on his ass watching reruns from his soap opera days, whilehe should be using the limited management skills he possesses to try and make something happen for this team. I’m sure he won’t and this trade deadline will just be another one that comes and goes with nothing to show for… Maybe Oshey will surprise us though and make some great decisions during the offseason!

http://Lou Lou

this if from Chad Ford

“The Clippers were shot down by the Nuggets in their pursuit of Danilo Gallinari, but they aren’t done trying to find a sharp-shooting small forward to add to the roster.

Sources say Clippers GM Neil Olshey was been canvasing the league looking for a starting 3 to round out L.A.’s roster. The Clippers have multiple first-round picks to offer, as well as young players like Eric Bledsoe and Al-Farouq Aminu and veterans like Chris Kaman. “

Aaron

Gerald Wallace is being actively shopped. Obviously, he would be an excellent fit, but they are looking for an expiring deal plus a (protected) first-rounder. Not sure we have anything appealing in terms of expiring deals, and I’d say the Minny #1 has to be off-limits.

RimReaper

So much for my dreams of Danilo Gallinari playing for the Clippers. At least Olshey has his priorities straight. We desperately need a sharpshooting starting small forward. He should also canvas the Euroleague for a prospect.

Old Skool Clip Fan

Freakin’ Bledsoe completely killed our chances last night. Yeah, he had 13 points but so what? His 5 turnovers were crucial mistakes and enabled the Thunder to totally dominate the Clips while Baron and Blake were out. Jeez, you gotta realize that the second unit is crippled and as the point guard taking care of the ball is job 1!! So frustrating…

RimReaper

That’s why although Aminu had a rare good game, I call Aminu and Bledsoe the “Turnover Twins.”

RimReaper

I’m starting to think that, with Bledsoe’s history, these turnover problems are more a function of low basketball IQ than rookie growing pains. I hope he proves me wrong.

clipporvida

You are right on, EB needs to slow the eff down. He’s was turnover waiting to happen last night.. He was trying to show OKC they made a mistake by trading him…Not!

Metal Matty

DeMar Derozan has decided to slam the dunk contest, calling it a “prop dunk contest”.

I like this kid more and more every day. And it’s not just the stupid car thing. Having the fans text for the winner is a shameless money grab by the NBA, who otherwise do such a great job of things during All-Star weekend.

Having fans text for the winner of ANYTHING, has about as much credence as manmade global warming.

The league needs to stop trying to be AMERICAN IDOL. This scam denegrates the players in my opinion. DeMar is smart enough to know it makes NO DIFFERENCE who was in the final against Blake. The whole car thing was specifically set up to be the winning dunk.

Shameless. Sad. Pathetic. …. but expected. The contest has been leaning further and further this way for some time now. It’s not an even playing field…… why complete if you aren’t THE CHOSEN ONE.

Again, GREAT JOB Dermar. We are ALL behind you. (and yes, I am speaking for all REAL fans of the game since anyone who can’t see throught this hollow scam is not a real fan)

RimReaper

Holy Crap! Deron Williams has been traded to the Nets! Apparently it happens so fast that it took him by surprise and he is not happy about it. When Eric Pincus from hoopsworld.com held his weekly chat, Deron asked him a question. There he mused about where he wanted to go after his contract with the Jazz expired and said that although his first choice was the Knicks, after playing with Blake he was also thinking about joining the Clippers. Williams lives in San Diego in the off-season. Maybe we could get him someday down the line.

Metal Matty

Williams and Blake together would be Doomsday.

RimReaper

Doomsday for the Clippers or their opponents?

Metal Matty

The club needs to identify exactly what is killing this team defensively. Root out all evil and hold people accountable.

Last night I felt like Willie Warren was the first player ever to be demoted from the D-League to the NBA.